The Wordsmith
by Hazepool
Summary: Ladies' man Riku is secretly a poet. Xion, in a stroke of brilliance, decides that the world should know it, and publishes Riku's poetry online under an anonymous name. But between all of the secrets, con artists, famous bands, and everyday teen drama, Xion's starting to wish that maybe she hadn't been so brilliant after all.
1. A Good Friend

**Summary: Riku loves writing poetry, but despite his understanding of the world of words, he remains convinced that if his poetry is a public fact, his ladies' man reputation will be completely ruined. Enter Xion, his best friend and the only one who knows his secret hobby. Xion decides that Riku's poetry is a gift to mankind, and does her duty as a best friend - publishes it anonymously behind Riku's back. Meanwhile, the drama of senior year continues as their final year of high school wraps up...**

**Warnings: Language**

**AN: Think something's weird? Found a typo? Want to let me know you liked it? Hated it? Regardless, reviewing makes me a very happy bunny. If you review, I will hop around in delight. Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its affiliates.**

Chapter I

* * *

_in which Xion decides to be a good friend_

* * *

Riku was one manly man's man. And he knew it, too.

He strolled through the hallways of Destiny Academy. His leisurely pace stood out amongst the rest of the students, who were trying to get to their next class as fast as they could without running. There was only one school in Destiny Islands, and consequentially all students, from high school students to kindergarteners, attended Destiny Academy. It was rather pretentious term for the sprawled out, badly organized, slightly-run-down building. To make matters worse, some idiot on school board thought it would be a great idea to organize the school based on subjects instead of grades. Therefore not only was the layout of the building as confusing as hell, the class themselves were organized by a man who was paid hundreds of thousands to sit on a school board each year and make increasing bad decisions for higher paychecks. Instead of separating each wing by class grade, the four-story building was separated by class type for the sake of "inter-peer group interaction," meaning that the seniors' AP Biology was in the science wing next to the third graders' Exploration Science class.

When Riku and his classmates left his fourth period study hall on the D section of the building, first floor, and needed to get to the A section of the building, third floor, for Literature, his classmates began to run the moment the bell rang, shoving aside younger children in their rush.

Riku walked his manly man's man walk.

And by some miracle, he made it to class right on time.

Xion hated it.

She wasn't jealous at all. As captain of the girls' varsity soccer team, she was in very good shape, and took pride in her sprinting abilities by arriving first in all of her classes. No, she hated it when Riku walked to class because despite being on the other side of the building and walking, Riku managed to flirt with almost every female student on the way and still arrive right on time.

After all, it was called Riku's manly man's man walk for a reason.

It was infuriating. It was impressive. It was absolutely, unconditionally impossible.

When Riku arrived in their Literature class, right on time as usual, Xion was waiting for him, half standing her seat in the back of the room. Her blue eyes were narrowed, and her short, black hair stood on end. Her lips were pursed, and her hands were clenched into fists. Riku gave her a once over and gingerly took the seat next to her.

"'Sup?" said Riku.

Xion's left eye twitched, and she slammed her right hand onto Riku's desk, startling him.

"Look at it," she said through gritted teeth, opening her hand and revealing a very crumpled, slightly damp ball of paper. Riku smoothed it out the best he could. On it were dozens of mathematical formulas. A brief skim told him they were partly math but mostly physics, calculating position and time with a few other variables. He flipped it over to see a bunch of scribbles overlaying numerous squares and rectangles.

"Pence and I spent two hours working on this last night. There's something wrong with the math. Or you. Actually, there has to be something wrong with you. It's impossible. _You're_ impossible."

"So that's where you were last night." Riku brushed off the insults and read over the paper again. "This calls for the amount of time it takes for person RJ – those are my initials – to complete SH to L distance –that's study hall to Lit – and more distances, SC to SH…yada yada yada…variable for distraction time?"

Xion nodded and tapped the back of the paper. "Yep. This is the school map. The only answer that we got was that there must be an error in the distraction variable or pace of walking. Pence hacked the school's blueprints, so the distance can't be too off. It has to be one of the time variables."

"Xion," said Riku slowly. "There's also an attraction variable for girls that has nothing to do with magnetism. Were you trying to break down my sexy-swag walk into math?"

Her expression was more than enough as an answer.

"Wait, seriously? Ha! And Pence hacked the school's system for this? Haha!"

Xion bristled. "It was a scientific experiment, and a good one. Pence is our year's salutatorian and we recorded your pace after school one day and- hey! Stop laughing!"

They were attracting stares across the room, and a few girls were starting to glare at Xion.

"Settle down, class, settle down."

Their literature teacher had finished recording their attendance at the computer and immediately pulled out a stack of papers.

"I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this batch of tests. I can easily say that only five of you bothered to answer all of the questions, let alone study for this very important unit test."

Xion started to zone out. She was pretty sure she had at least gotten a B+, and therefore she didn't need to hear the lecture on how a little under half their class failed. She took out a piece of scratch paper and began doodling, passing the first fifteen minutes of class with spirals and soccer balls. Her earlier conversation with Riku was forgotten until the crumpled math paper and a note were set on her desk. The distraction variable was highlighted, and on the clean sheet of the note said in Riku's neat handwriting:

_I don't need to speak with the ladies in order to flirt with them. That makes your distraction variable useless._

Xion smacked herself in the head. Right. Ladies' man Riku. If he looks at you in the eyes, then he's already started flirting. She looked over to the right and glared. He was looking straight ahead at the teacher, the picture of an innocent and studious pupil. Only Xion could tell that supposed look of concentration was Riku trying not to smirk.

_I tried. It's been a mystery, and I was so close to solving it. Jeez, Riku, you're not human!_

Not even bothering to be sly, Xion lightly punched him in the arm and slapped the note on his desk. Ms. Gainsborough was too busy shaking the tests at an unfortunate student in the front row. Xion spared a thought of mercy before realizing the kid had only written their name on the test, nothing else.

There was a soft tap on her wrist, and she accepted the folded note.

_You're right, I'm not human. I'm perfect._

Xion snorted.

_Sure you are. Soccer after school today?_

_Nah, morning practice was enough soccer for the day. I'm not busy though, we can do something._

Xion caught Riku's eye and nodded. Girls' soccer practice had been a bit tougher than normal as well, but she enjoyed it. There was nothing more satisfying that making everyone run extra laps just because she felt like it and knew most of her teammates didn't have her endurance. Ah, the joys of being a captain.

_Good enough. Hear about that new Ranger game?_

The note passing continued throughout class until Ms. Gainsborough seemed to finally wind down.

"...And if I get a batch of tests like this on the next unit, all failing grades will get a write up and in-school suspension."

With that, Ms. Gainsborough ran a hand through her bangs and glanced at the clock. "Next week, we start our next unit on poetry. Because of poor participation in this class, we're going to have some changes. Students will present projects and important homework assignments at random in front of the class. If you forget your homework more than once, you're in the office for the rest of class. I have been patient with this class since the semester change, but my patience is done. Do not test me. You're dismissed early for lunch."

Riku stood up slowly, stretching as he did. He snagged his bag pack off the floor, and winked at the girls watching him, making his way out of class at his normal, sedate pace. When he was just outside the classroom door, Xion could see him chatting up a junior, swapping cell phones for a second before slowly moving on once more.

Xion shook her head. She hated it when Riku walked slowly not because she was jealous, or because he defied all laws of physics doing it. No, Xion hated it because each time Riku walked like a manly man, he flirted with everything remotely female. She swung on her own bag pack, and quickly left to catch up with her best friend.

* * *

Xion sat at the usual circular table with Riku right beside her, talking about the Lit teacher's flip. The cafeteria was just starting to fill up, and was slowly getting noisier.

"I was wondering when it was going to happen. It's always the nice teachers that snap," said Riku, biting into an apple.

"Least it wasn't at us. It's funny when you're not the one in trouble," said Xion. Riku muttered a quiet amen under his breath and took another bite of his apple.

"Hey guys." Kairi, one of Xion's senior soccer players and Riku's childhood friend, sat down heavily in the seat opposite of Xion. Following her was Olette, a mutual friend who was rumored to be their class valedictorian. The two already at the table gave them a quick greeting, and Xion noted Kairi's less-than-stellar appearance. There were bags under her eyes and her normally straight red hair was a little frizzed. She was wearing a form-fitting white T-shirt with a waist belt and shorts, but her crisp clothes only served to highlight how Kairi herself looked tired and worn out.

"Why Kairi, you're absolutely looking wonderful today," Xion said cheerfully.  
Kairi groaned. The short soccer captain had finger-combed her own short hair back into place, and her old, faded blue shirt with khaki shorts looked much more comfortable than her own outfit at the moment.

"I hate morning practices. I could be doing tons of different and more fun things in the morning than running in circles. Like folding laundry. Or cleaning the toilet."

Xion waggled her sandwich in admonition. "Running is fun, and good for your health. We've got that tournament coming up soon, so run run run!"

Kairi groaned and took a sip of her soda. "Oh sweet mother of God, caffeine."

"That has more sugar than caffeine in it," said Xion. She leaned sideways to read the label. "I thought you were on a no-sugar diet?"

"Not anymore," said Kairi shortly.

"So I heard that Ms. Gainsborough lost it during 5th period. That's your class, right?" asked Olette, playing her usual role of peacemaker. "I saw her in the hallway on the way here and she looked pretty upset."

Xion nodded. She would never cease to be amazed at how fast news traveled. Kairi gave her a sympathetic look as she set down her Mountain Dew. "Xion, you were complaining about that class two practices ago and saying you had trouble with the homework. You know, if you need help, Olette, Riku, or I are good at Lit."

Xion scowled.

"Riku already helped me," she said. The other girls turned to Riku and opened their mouths to tell him what a good friend he was, but Riku beat them to it.

"And man she needed it!" he said. "Her work? Terrible."

"What's terrible?"

Roxas, blond twin of Kairi's boyfriend and another soccer player, sat down next to Xion to complete the circle at the small table. Olette jumped on the opportunity to redirect the conversation back to its original topic.

"They were about to tell us how Ms. Gainsborough lost her temper at their class."

Xion shrugged, forgetting the quip about her homework. "I wasn't paying too much attention," she admitted. "But I do know it was because the unit test scores were low. I checked online and I knew I got a good grade on the unit test, so why bother listening? She did end up waving the tests in one kid's face though, it was pretty funny."

"She almost cried a few times," said Riku. "She said she was disappointed and that classes like ours made her feel sorry for the few who are there to learn."

The rest of the table winced. It was always worse when the nicer teachers like Ms. Gainsborough pulled the disappointment card.

"Ouch," said Roxas.

"At least it wasn't directed at you," said Kairi. She shuddered. "I hate it when the disappoint is directed at you."

"Amen," said the table quietly.

"I've never had that happen to me," said their resident valedictorian in a mild tone, and immediately earned glares that she ignored with ease. "What's the next unit on?"

Kairi answered for Xion and Riku, having Lit first hour.

"Poetry," said the red-head. Roxas groaned and let his head fall to hit the table, his blond spikes dangerously close to his mac-n-cheese.

"You're kidding me, right?" he said, voice muffled by the table.

"What?" asked Kairi. "Poetry's the easiest unit. It takes about five minutes for each assignment."

"For most people," Xion gave a pointed look at Riku, who was suddenly fascinated by his apple core. Olette misread the silent communication and crossed her arms.

"Riku, I'm not doing your assignments for you, so don't even try on this."

"Hmph," said Roxas. He turned his head to the side and began the hazardous task of eating sideways. "Get your fangirls to do it. Don't some of them write you poems from time to time?"

Olette reached over and bopped their blond friend on the head.

"Don't encourage him."

Roxas gagged. "Watch it, I'm eating here!"

"Right," said Xion. "The poetry-writing fangirls. Better not let them write for you, Riku. Olette is on the homework cheating war path, watch out."

"Can't help them wanting to reward my good looks with poetry," said Riku breezily. To prove his point, he turned around and swapped phone numbers with the nearest girl at the table behind him. Xion sighed, recognizing the distraction for what it was. Olette and Roxas started up an argument concerning Olette's "domestic abuse and murderous tendencies," with Kairi chiming in from time to time. The topic was officially dead, and Xion moved on, grinning with a new idea.

"So Kairi," she said. Kairi's eyes widened and stopped mid-argument, recognizing the Xion Evil Grin of Doom for what it was. "I thought practice was great today. Fantastic, even. What do you think about making every morning practice like that?"

Kairi's head joined Roxas's on the table.

* * *

Sunset found Xion at Riku's house, sprawled out idly on his bed while he typed on his laptop. Most of the houses in Destiny Island had the same standard layout, making it easier on builders during reconstruction from typhoons and hurricanes. Because of this, Riku's room was almost identical to Xion's, his red and grey color scheme and furniture type the few differences from her blue and green room. There was a wooden desk at the corner left of the door with a bookshelf built in over it, and on the opposite wall there Riku had a TV with a bunch of gaming consoles hooked up to it. A few pillows lay on the floor in front of the TV, evidence from when the two had been playing video games earlier. Riku's bed was shoved under the windows next the wall, in between the TV and desk.

Xion picked up the plushie moogle she had given Riku on his eighth birthday. Maybe Riku could have gotten away with denying that it was a gift he kept around to please his best friend a few years ago, but the amount of wear and tear showed that it was a well-loved companion.

"So, the poetry fangirls strike again?"

Riku nodded, not once pausing in his typing. "I've got a few other poems I'd like to see reactions to. Peotry fangirls strike again Monday."

Xion rolled her eyes. "You know," she said, "Nobody would make fun of you if you came out of the closet."

Riku scoffed. "If our peers knew what I do in my spare time, they'd think I was in the closet. And don't think I'm not mad about you trying to bring it up during lunch."

"Weeeelllll...you flirt a lot, but don't have a girlfriend. People might think it's a ploy, trying to get with all of the girls but never committing. Fear of commitment, or denial at its worst, or so they say. Also, you're not mad at me."

Riku paled. "I'm not afraid of committing, it just never works out." He slammed the laptop shut and spun around to face her. "Do you realize how much crap I would get from the guys if my hobby got out? And forget dating, _no one_ would be interested."

"Riku..." Xion sighed. "In PE today, the girls were talking about how hot you were. You've got to have more confidence in yourself. I bet they'd like you more if they knew you liked poetry. Being sensitive can be attractive, and maybe you'll finally start being attracted to the right type of people, instead of those who only want the jock you act like."

Blue eyes met teal, and for a second Xion thought Riku was thinking over her words seriously.

"How hot did they say I was?"

"Argh! You're impossible."

Xion punctuated the last word by throwing the moogle at him. To her frustration, it was caught right before it hit Riku's smug face. She flipped over onto her stomach and spun herself so she was facing the laptop, deciding to pretend that her defeat had never happened.

"History report?"

"Nah, I finished it yesterday. This is a little project of mine."

He opened up the laptop and handed it to her. It was a typed document with a poem on the first page. Xion went to scroll down, and her jaw dropped.

"Riku, is this all poetry? Your poetry?"

1/108 pages, read the page count at the bottom of the screen. Xion flipped through a few randomly. "Hey, I remember this one! You gave it to me when I broke my arm."

Riku's hand gently pushed her own off of the mousepad and scrolled down a few pages, showing more poems that Xion recognized from years of critiquing her friend's work.

"Hmmm, so you did change the title there. And I like the new stanzas in "Far Away". How many poems are there?"

Riku shrugged. "I don't know. I've been typing up new ones at the same time I've been going through old notebooks and typing those up."

"_Her imagination ran wild and left her behind_

_She´s trapped in a world of real emotion._

_No safety, no comfort, as she steps forward,_

_The only direction her heart will go._"

Xion looked up. "Riku, these are great! When are you publishing these?"

Riku raised an eyebrow. "Publish? They're a hobby, and not nearly good enough."

Xion inwardly frowned. Riku had been writing poems since sixth grade, and it had taken two years of close friendship for Xion to be the first to learn of their existence in eighth grade. Xion had fallen in love with his writing style and, after a lot of poetry research, had decided that Riku was as good as Emily Dickenson and Robert Frost, but he never believed her. Even when members of their social group reviewed his poetry under the impression it was from fangirls and gave glowing reviews, Riku was extremely self-critical. Not wanting to start yet another argument over the quality of his poems, she let his negative comment about his work go and kept the smile on her face. "Okay. Then...why are you doing this?"

Another shrug. "Sora and Roxas came over after soccer practice a few weeks ago, and Sora, nosy as he is, got close to finding the notebooks under the desk because I left one out showing a corner."

"So now you're typing it all up and getting rid of the notebooks? And if Sora gets on your laptop?"

"I hid the file in the Program files. It's password blocked with encryption, and the online backup copy is encrypted as well."

Xion didn't know whether to give props for a well-thought out solution or facepalm. It was almost too clever for something so…unnecessary.

"That's so ingenious, it's pathetic," she announced.

Riku smiled faintly before switching topics. "Roxas said Axel's coming back for a few weeks and is free on Sunday. He wanted to know if we wanted to meet up."

"Of course we do! Geez, he makes it sound like we could say no to that. Where at?"

"The beach in the morning, then we're going over to Roxas's to hang out. I already told Roxas we'd be there."

* * *

"Hey, Rox-ass, looking good!"

"Axel!"

Roxas's face lit up, and he leapt off the wall lining the border of the beach that he, Riku, and Xion were sitting on. It was another beautiful day at Destiny Islands, and the blue sky contrasted sharply with Axel's bright red spikes as he put Roxas in a headlock and began ruffling the younger teen's hair.

"Let me go! Argh, why did I say I missed you?"

"Because I'm irresistible and irreplaceable?"

Xion laughed, and Axel grinned at her over Roxas's head."Ah ah ah, don't think you're off the hook too." In a few strides, Axel was standing right in front of Xion. She tilted her head back in to give him a smile, not even bothering to struggle when he reached over and messed up her hair as well.

"Hi. How's college?"

"Eh, it's college. Study, sleep, party. Same old, same old."

Xion had never been more surprised when Axel proudly showed them his acceptance to Radiant Garden University's Pre-law program, accompanied by a scholarship from his volunteer firefighting work. They were all happy for him, but Roxas had battled some initial depression when he realized his best friend would be living it up mainland-style and far away from the islands.

Currently Roxas was patting his hair into place while grumbling. "Go to say hello, get a noogie. How come he's not bothering Riku?"

Axel gave her hair a final muss. "You two wimpy midgets can't do much. Riku, on the other hand, would kill me if I did that to him." He nodded at the teen in question, receiving a sharp nod in return. "'Sup?"

"Can't...do much? Midgets?" Roxas's left eyebrow twitched.

"Uh oh, I made princess mad." It was a poor insult, but Xion reveled in the familiar banter, even if it was a bit rusty. Roxas appeared to have the same feeling, his face lighting up as he began chasing Axel and calling him names.

When Roxas started trying to hit Axel, who was running away and laughing like mad, Riku glanced over at a mock-fuming Xion.

"I'm the average height for a girl, dammit!" Xion made a fist and slammed it into her palm. "Also, I'm the pretty pretty princess around here. Axel should know that by now."

"Well, if you're going to join in, Your Highness…"

A large stick, big enough to be called a club, was shoved in front of her hands. Xion had no idea when or where Riku had obtained such a fine branch for smashing things like skulls, but couldn't bring herself to care at the moment.

"Riku, have I ever told you that you're a wonderful, beautiful friend and that I should never doubt how wonderful you are?"

"Yes, but feel free to continue complimenting me. It's not like I don't deserve it. Say cheese."

Riku held up his phone. Xion posed with the stick, holding it above her head with both hands and making an angry face, doing her best to keep from smiling. There was an automated clicking sound as Riku took the picture.

"Nice," said Riku. He took a snapshot of Axel being chased by Roxas, sand flying everywhere. "Now get in there and do your business. I always want to see how the hobbits fought in real life."

He hoisted himself up with his arms and sprang backwards off of the wall, narrowly avoiding the stick that had slammed into where he had been sitting.

After a brief chase, Riku and Axel joined forces and brought out the water guns from the back of Riku's car, which lasted until Axel accidentally hit Riku with a shot meant for Roxas. Everyone stripped down to their bathing suits, Xion wearing board shorts over her tankini bottoms, and it degenerated into a free-for-all that ended with Axel and Xion versus Riku and Roxas.

Xion's face hurt from laughing so much. She ran her free hand over her cheeks and jawbone. Next to her, hidden behind another large paupu tree stood Axel.

"Status?"

She peeked out from behind the tree. If she squinted, she could make out a blob of silver and blond in the distance, slowly becoming larger. "They're still a few minutes away, but they're getting closer."

"Good eye, solider. Stand down."

They both leaned their water guns against the tree and slid to the ground, ignoring the way the sand clung to them.

"Any fun classes at college?"

Axel ran a hand through his waterlogged spikes. "Eh, not really. I'm only a freshman, so I've got gen-eds - general classes that are required - with only one class on law. Professor's cool, makes the class real interesting."

"Well, at least you have the parties to go to." In highschool, Xion knew that Axel liked going to the occasional party, often taking Riku with him.

Axel shook his head. "I don't have time to go very often. Got to work at their town's fire station, you know? Keep up the scholarship. Though for the record, when I do get the chance to go," he winked at her. "It's quite the party. Status?"

She checked on their ambush targets again. They were closer, so close she could see the outline of their bodies, but they had stopped for some reason. Ah. There was a girl standing near Riku. "Stopped their advance so Target 1 could flirt."

"Is she hot?"

"I don't think I can judge that."

She watched as Riku flexed an arm and the girl ran her hand over his muscles. A sudden ripple of anger spread through her. Riku, her best friend Riku, wasn't like this. Sure, he enjoyed the attention of the fairer sex, but he had this crazy idea that they liked masculine figures more. She knew that instead of a physical relationship, he would rather woo the lady in the most romantic sense, none of this "Look at my muscles, hear me roar," nonsense. But here was Riku, once again _not listening_ to her and doing his manly show anyway, and here she was, once again watching her best friend be someone he wasn't from a distance. She could already see the date and subsequent disappointment that would follow when the two realized they had nothing in common.

"Hey Axel," she found herself saying. "Say you have a friend, and you want to give them a push because you know it's good for them. What do you do?"

Axel blinked. "I have no idea what you just said."

"Okay," she said, searching for a way to properly explain herself. "Say you've got a friend who doesn't ride roller coasters with a group of friends because your friend screams a lot during the ride. You know that they like roller coasters because they make you go alone with them all the time. You try to convince them that your friends won't care if they scream, but they don't listen. What do you do?"

"Huh." Xion could almost see the wheels turning in Axel's head. She waited patiently.

"Weeeeellll," said Axel after a minute. "I'd get them to go on the roller coaster with their friends. Blackmail, force, whatever works. Even if they hate me afterwards, I would know that the friends wouldn't care, and I'd eventually be forgiven. The scared friend maybe wouldn't like it at first, but it's an irrational fear that they needed to face. Friends help friends face irrational fears, got it memorized?"

Xion nodded. "I think so."

"Good. Status?"

Xion was thankful that Axel wasn't the type to pry, and turned back to their targets. "Closer, maybe another minute, they had to stop again. Roxas is out of water, they're trying to transfer part of Riku's water to his tank and ignoring the freaking ocean, which is about five feet away."

"All right. We charge when I say charge. Ready? CHARGE!"

And as Axel and Xion won their water flight, the four of them ordered out pizza, and played video games and watched horror movies until it was time to go home, Xion thought about what Axel had told her. She couldn't fall asleep that night, roller coasters, masculinity and poetry swirling around in her head, until finally she fell asleep with one thought in mind.

If Riku wasn't going to publish his poetry due to an irrational fear, she would publish it for him.


	2. Mental Torture

**Summary: Riku loves writing poetry, but despite his understanding of the world of words, he remains convinced that if his poetry is a public fact, his ladies' man reputation will be completely ruined. Enter Xion, his best friend and the only one who knows his secret hobby. Xion decides that Riku's poetry is a gift to mankind, and does her duty as a best friend - publishes it anonymously behind Riku's back. Meanwhile, the drama of senior year continues as their final year of high school wraps up...**

**Warnings: Language**

**AN: Well, here's chapter 2, all nice and rewritten. Honestly, it was chapter 1 that was in shambles. This one I didn't have to change too much. I suspect chapter 3 &4 are going to be a nightmare to edit nicely...well...I've got another few hours. Here we go!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its affiliates.**

Chapter 2

* * *

_in which Riku faces mental torture_

* * *

"GOAL!"

Riku high-fived Sora, his right-field forward. Sora had given the ball a bit of a lift, putting it at the perfect spot for Riku to jump kick it past the surprised goalkeeper.

"We should work on that for a game," said Sora as they jogged back to their starting positions. He rubbed his hands together against the morning chill and gave a short, evil cackle. "Kairi's going to be so jealous."

Riku slowed to a stop as they approached the soccer ball waiting for the kickoff. A sharp whistle sounded off in the distance, and heads turned to the left were the girls' team where half of the team was running suicide laps and the rest were lining up for goal kicks. The boys' team had finished their season in fall, and no longer had to do the harder workouts. "Jealous, and tired and possibly grumpy from running so early in the morning. Good luck with your girlfriend."

"Thanks, I'll need it," said Sora. "Wait. Hold on." He thought back on his words. "Don't tell her I said that."

"Didn't plan on it," said Riku. He took his place as center forward, but the practice game was interrupted before it could begin by a shrill whistle, this one much closer.

"Time's up, gentlemen! Five laps, then we're done for today."

The normal groans and grumbles persisted through the admittedly easy laps to the chaotic locker room. Riku skillfully dodged a flying sock as he pulled his shirt over his head.

"Stupid freshman, thinking they're all that. The JV goalie thinks he's better than me, huh?" Roxas snatched the sock out of the air and threw it into the group of freshman boys a few feet over. "Whatever. I'll sic Axel on the little midget."

Riku slammed his locker closed. "Let me know how that works out for you."

Two arms came out of nowhere to snag Riku and Roxas around the neck. Sora's head popped in between, his usual smile present.

"Hey, Axel's around? Why didn't you tell me?"

Roxas shrugged off his brother's arm. "Get off me, man. I did tell you, and you said you had a date with Kairi."

"Oh yeah..." Sora stared dreamily off into the distance, not noticing the cockroach crawling on the locker in front of him. "What a date that was."

"I'm sure it was amazing," Riku said soothingly as he took moved Sora's hand to the locker in front of him.

"Argh!" Sora abruptly came to himself, shaking off the roach that was crawling on his wrist. "What did I do to you?"

Riku gave his trademark smirk, but any response he had was forgotten when he overheard:

"Hey, does bear rhyme with beer?"

Riku pinpointed the source to a group of juniors and seniors huddled around a bench doing last week's forgotten homework. One of his classmates was scrawling down lines of words on a slightly crumpled sheet of paper.

"Nevermind, don't answer that. It does." He scrawled another line. "There. Done. Stupid poetry."

Riku bristled at hearing his favorite hobby insulted, but remained silent.

"Dude, why are you complaining? Best unit this year, ya?" said another senior working on his own poem. It seemed Riku wasn't the only one to like poetry in the locker room.

"What, Wakka, you girly enough to like it? What's next, musicals?"

"No!" Wakka leapt to his feet, pencils and papers sliding to the floor as he waved his arms around. "I'm just sayin' that it's easy to do, five minutes and you're done, ya? Easy A."

There was a burst of laughter in the corner.

"Whatever you say, Wakka."

_Idiots. _Riku scowled. Apparently he was the only one in the locker room to like poetry.

"Hey, that reminds me. Did you do that assignment? It ended up taking ten minutes to complete, I kept getting distracted. The Gullwings announced they're starting work on their new album soon," said Roxas.

Sora grinned. "Haha, it took five minutes for me! Too bad, Roxy."

"It wasn't a competition," grumbled Roxas. In a synchronized movement that Roxas would deny and that Sora would treasure, both twins turned to Riku with identical expressions on their faces waiting to hear how long it had taken their friend to write his own poem.

"...I didn't do it," said Riku after a moment's hesitation. Sora clapped a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"You have LA 5th hour, you'll get it done by then. If it took me five minutes, you'll be finished in two. Jerk." He smiled to ease the insult.

"Right," said Riku. He slung his black bag pack over his shoulder, and, with a quick goodbye to the twins, left the locker room. On the way to his first class, he thought back to the two page sonnet on his desk at home, a homework assignment that had taken him one thoughtful hour to complete, and shoved his empty hands into his pockets.

* * *

Riku's first few classes flew by in a haze. To his surprise, somehow his notes had written themselves; he certainly didn't remember doing it. He was so lost in thought he didn't notice the wink from a voluptuous brunette, nevertheless return it when he walked to 5th hour class.

"Riku!"

A hand caught his arm, and Xion doubled over panting, using him for support. They stood directly next to the door of the Language Arts class, and the stream of students present slipped around the two.

"What's up?"

Riku blinked down at her.

"Nothing," he said.

Xion huffed. "Wrong answer, try again."

Riku did his best to dodge the question in a clever manner that would get Xion to leave him alone. It would have to be sophisticated, a worthy piece of absolute bull that politicians would dream of being able to spin on the spot.

"Nothing."

Damn. Where was his creativity when he needed it?

Xion shoved him impatiently. "Don't lie to me. Remember who took those notes for you when you were too busy staring off into space."

Riku examined his science notes again. They were written in a bright green ink, and the handwriting was a little messier than his. Well, that solved the mystery of how his notes had written themself. "Thanks."

"Anytime. So, is there something wrong?"

"I forgot my homework."

Xion gaped. "You, Riku Jenova, forgot your homework? What has the world come to…"

"Hey, it happens." Riku ignored the spike of annoyance as Xion began gloating, but Xion picked it up nevertheless and patted his arm condescendingly.

"Don't worry, Riku, just because you forgot your homework for the first time since kindergarten, you won't be expelled." With that, the bell rang, and she led the way into the Literature classroom.

They stopped short at the door. The desks were pushed against the pale blue walls, and in the center of the clearing lay bright, off-shade rusty orange rug that looked like it belonged in the 60s. Their classmates sat lining the circle, backpacks and binders strewn behind them.

"Go on, you two, have a seat," Ms. Gainsborough said. Xion and Riku gingerly sat down next to each other, completing the circle. Xion nudged Riku and subtly pointed to a dubious shade of red on the rug next to him.

_Gross_, she mouthed. Riku shifted a shade closer to Xion and away from the red spot. Better safe than sorry, after all.

"Okay, then, now that everyone's settled, let's get started." Oh no. Ms. Gainsborough was beaming at her students. "After school last Friday, I heard that some of us were upset about the lecture I gave. To help you through this tough time, I've created a support group in the class. This class will now be having a sharing circle to make sure everyone is participating, is that understood?"

"Understood," the class chanted back dutifully.

Yes, Riku understood…that Ms. Gainsboroug's kind exterior, complete with pink dresses and hair ribbons, was a facade. It took a devious mind to force a bunch of proud teenagers to sit through kindergarten-style classes.

"Good! Let's start with last week's homework. Pass it forward, and I'll be calling you up to read your poetry to the rest of us."

There was the general shuffling of papers, and Xion gave Riku an encouraging smile when he shook his head to say he didn't have the assignment. Riku pushed her lightly in retaliation.

Ms. Gainsborough flipped through the papers, evidentially satisfied. "Riku, you're first."

There was no way she called him up on accident. She must have heard Riku saying he didn't have his homework at the door. Riku clenched his jaw before taking a deep breath and visibly relaxing. "I'm sorry, I left it at home." It wasn't a lie. He simply neglected the fact that he left it home on purpose.

"Bring it in tomorrow for a late grade. Desmond, you've got the floor."

"My poem is about the truth about the the taboos of life." He cleared his throat.

"My second cousin is extremely pretty;  
To want her is an atrocity.  
My brother has a gun;  
Playing with it is a lot of fun  
My dad is a righteous man;  
He won't let me do what I can.  
So I do it anyway. The end."

There was a heavy silence as the student sat back down.

Ms. Gainsborough coughed nervously. "That was very nice, Desmond. I bet the principle would love to hear it. Wakka, why don't you go next?"

"Mine is about the sky!" Wakka scrambled to his feet and stood up proudly, accepting his paper from the teacher.

"White and blue, white and blue  
White and blue, I love you."

There was a smattering of snickers.

"Hey, shaddup, this stuff wasn't easy, ya? Okay, let's see - I love you.  
Yes it's true, I love you.  
Clouds are white in the sky  
I can see them with my eye.  
Unless the sun is in my eye,  
This is not a lie.  
Because I really like the sky."

Ms. Gainsborough began to clap. "Why, that was wonderful!"

Riku resisted the urge to bury his face in his hands and scream. Next to him, Xion had a sudden fit of coughing that sounded suspiciously like laughter. Compared to Desmond's creepy poem, any piece of trash would sound good. Riku could only hope that Wakka was an exception and that the rest of the class had put forth some effort.

He was disappointed. After the seventh girl had written a love poem about Riku, Xion's coughing fit became chronic and she left the room to "get a drink of water," which meant that his best friend had abandoned him to go laugh hysterically in the girl's bathroom. Riku scooted over and sat his bag next to him so that when Xion returned, she would have to sit on the red splotch.

There had been one or two decent poems, one by a girl about spring and another by a guy about drinking songs, but Riku could tell they were written by an amateur. However, the most were, to put it simply, jokes, an insult to poets worldwide. He checked the clock desperately. The minute hand was moving far too slowly today.

"I had a dream with a man  
And he was wearing red  
He had an awesome scar  
I asked who cut his head

I beat up monsters  
And he beat up me  
I won money from monsters  
And ran into a tree

I hitched a ride on Big Bird  
And drank a lot of beer  
I ate some weird food  
And wrestled with a bear."

That was it. Riku had officially lost faith in all of humanity.

_Please don't give him an A, please don't give him an A, I wrote better crap when I was five!  
_  
"That was very good, Tidus!"

_You're kidding me._ The teacher was practically beaming. She was going to give that horrible excuse for a poem an A, he knew it.

"Next up, let's hear Tim's poem about his pet rock! But first, a round of applause for Tidus."

The class's clapping covered the sound of Riku grinding his teeth in a way that made dentists everywhere cringe. He checked the clock. Fifteen more minutes of torture to go.

* * *

"Oh man, that's hilarious," said Sora. He wiped away a few tears and took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm good now. I'm good. I swear." Riku crossed his arms and waited for Sora to calm down. School had just ended, and the two of them had walked down to one of the more private beach areas that wasn't popular with tourists. They sat at the small wooden docks, feet dangling over the water. The sun was starting its descent on the opposite side of the island, and the coconut trees covered the beach in shade.

Sora managed to keep a straight face for all of ten seconds before he burst out laughing again. Riku knew it had been a mistake to recite some of the poems the fangirls read in his class.

"Silver hair like the moonlight? Haha! Oh Riku!" Sora twisted around and batted his eyes at his friend. "You don't need to be my knight in shining armor, you only need to be my amor. Haha!"

Sora lost it, and Riku grudgingly joined in. It was kind of funny if ignored the fact that it was about him.

"That was wrong on so many levels, Sora."

Sora gave his trademark grin. "So what's up? How's Axel?"

"He's good. He's on spring break but has this project due for his pre-law class that he's busy with, but he'll be around for two weeks."

Sora whistled. "That's a long spring break."

"It's college."

"True. Wish we had that instead of only one week."

"Aren't you going with Kairi to visit her family on vacation?" Riku was invited as well, but politely declined. The athletic teams often went to the mainland to play against other schools, and Twilight Town didn't hold anything new or interesting for him.

Sora folded his arms under his head and lay on his back, legs still swinging over the ocean. "Yeah. We're staying at her cool aunt's house – you know, Naminé's mom – for six days, so it's not like I'll be getting a lot of alone time with Kairi. She's going to want to spend time with her cousin. But you know, it'll make her happy, and that's all I care about."

"Sap."

"Heh, it's Kairi," he said as if that explained everything. "Will you and Xion be working on the Secret Island?"

"We plan on it."

"Good," said Sora. His closed his eyes. "It could use the work."

They sat there in silence, listening to the ocean and the seagulls.

"So, what's up?"

"You already asked that, moron."

"No, I mean seriously, what's up? What happened in the locker room today? You walked out looking like your dog died or something."

Riku shrugged, starting to feel a little uncomfortable. Trust Sora to be the most perceptive out of all of them. "Not much, we've got those exams at the end of the week."

Sora groaned. "Why did you have to remind me? I was perfectly happy not remembering and procrastinating studying. I've got calculus this semester. At least I won't have to worry too much about LA, go poetry unit."

"Yeah," said Riku. "Pretty awesome."

"Hey, no problem, Riku. You're smart, it'll be easy for you. Me? I'll have to bribe Roxas to help me study. Speaking of procrastination, wanna go work on that soccer move? "

"Nah," said Riku. "I've got to get home. Tomorrow we'll stay after practice and work on it."

Sora brightened. "Good idea, we can get Roxas to be goalie. Whelp, in that case, let's go."

* * *

Riku arrived at this house to find Xion sitting at his kitchen table with a glass of juice, hair wet from a recent shower. She probably showered at his house too, which was very concerning for Riku.

"Did you put away your stuff?"

Xion rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it's back in the drawer. Your dad isn't home for another three hours, he called the house and said he was working overtime. Pizza's in the oven."

Good. Riku's house was closer to the school than Xion's by a five-ten minute walk, and since the girls' locker room didn't have showers, Xion commonly used Riku's guest bathroom shower when she finished soccer practice. However, sometimes Riku used the guest bathroom to shower, and was not pleased when he found himself smelling like cherries and almonds after accidentally using some of Xion's shampoo.

He dumped his bag on the counter and got some water.

"The Gullwings are starting on a new album," said Xion. "It's all Roxas wants to talk about."

"Yeah, he was saying something about that this morning." Riku leaned against the counter. The Gullwings was an extremely popular band that had taken a hiatus six months ago to work on a new album. In their friend group, Roxas and Kairi were big fans, and kept everyone else informed of what the Gullwings were up to whether they wanted to know or not.

"They're going to drive us all insane by the time it comes out," said Xion.

"I don't like the poetry unit at school," Riku said suddenly. It had nothing to do with the topic at hand, but it had been one of the longest and most trying days of school Riku had ever experienced.

Xion propped her elbow up on the table, resting her chin in her hand. "Go on," she said.

"I don't know how to write stupid poems," said Riku. "But I can't turn in one of my better compositions."

"Why not?"

Riku raised an eyebrow. Xion got the hint.

"Fine fine, I noticed you didn't bring your fangirl poetry to the lunch table today."

"Too suspicious. Everyone knows now that all my fangirls write about is me. Bringing it in would raise too many questions."

Xion cracked a smile. "True. How about this: I'll write your poems for you to turn in, but in exchange, you made me official editor of your poems."

"I thought you already were." Xion was, after all, the only person Riku let read his poems.

"This means I get to read all of your poems. Are you done with your digital compilation? Can you send it to me?"

"Yes," said Riku. It was a little strange of Xion to ask for something so little in return for doing his homework for him, but Riku dismissed the thought. He was too relieved about not having to worry about his poet side being revealed to insensitive classmates.

"Cool," said Xion. "You may call me Editor Valentine, or High Empress of all Editting Valentine for short."

Riku snorted. "That's not shorter. Count the words. I can see why you're failing math."

"Hey! A C isn't failing, it means I'm average."

"Ha. No, a C- means you almost have a D, which means you're close to being grounded."

"Yes, but still not getting a D yet. There's a 'not' in there."

"Yet."

Riku allowed himself to relax and forget about poetry as he and Xion began their usual banter. There was no need to worry. He had Xion on his side, and that meant his secret was going nowhere fast.

* * *

_Thanks for reading, and please consider leaving a review. _


	3. A Mastermind

**Summary: Riku loves writing poetry, but despite his understanding of the world of words, he remains convinced that if his poetry is a public fact, his ladies' man reputation will be completely ruined. Enter Xion, his best friend and the only one who knows his secret hobby. Xion decides that Riku's poetry is a gift to mankind, and does her duty as a best friend - publishes it anonymously behind Riku's back. Meanwhile, the drama of senior year continues as their final year of high school wraps up...**

**Warnings: Language**

**AN: By the way, I think I'm starting to get better at this transition from scene to scene dealio just a little, so that's neat. -throws confetti-**

**Confused about character relationships? It works out like this – Xion is friends with Riku, Roxas, Axel, Kairi, and now Olette. She is on friendly terms with Pence and Sora. Riku is friends with Sora, Kairi, and Xion. He knows Axel better than he knows Pence and Olette, and spends a lot of time with Roxas because he's good friends with Sora. However, though Roxas and Xion would spend time alone, Riku wouldn't spend time alone with Roxas - probably only in group-ish settings. So depending on whose chapter it is, different minor characters are featured. That's why there was a long scene with Olette. Naminé isn't here because...well...that's a lot of people then, and since Xion's not technically that major of a character, I felt it was too boring. Not original. Either way, she exists. She just lives elsewhere, because really. Things like that happen. She'll be around at the very end of the story, so look. Stick with it, I have Naminé bribery!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its affiliates.**

* * *

Chapter 3

* * *

_in which Xion is a mastermind_

* * *

Xion, from a young age, had been impatient.

This didn't necessarily mean that she couldn't sit still and was always active. It meant that when Xion made up her mind to do something, it got done as fast as reasonably possible. It's the same trait that made her so good at soccer – she saw an opening, made a plan, and executed it right away. With a plan, Xion was unstoppable.

So when Xion got the crazy, bizarre idea to publish Riku's poetry, she began working on a plan right away. Her brain whirred with different possibilities and outcomes, and while she waited for Riku to finish typing up his poems, she was spending her time quietly trying to work out a plan to publish them without him finding out. Normally, Roxas, Kairi, or Riku would have recognized that Xion was in "planning mode" and have stopped her accordingly, but luck was in her favor. Roxas and Kairi, like the rest of their friends, were frantically studying for the group of tests on Friday and had no time to analyze Xion's odd behaviors. Any time Riku caught her staring off into space, he attributed it to her mentally going over the exam material or stressing out like many other seniors were.

The exams on Friday went well for Xion, and she was confident that she had scored a C+ or higher in math. So it was a happy and plotting Xion stood next to Roxas, Riku, Olette, and Axel at the harbor waving goodbye to Sora and Kairi who were taking the ferry to the mainland. As they trooped off the harbor and began walking together over to Pence's house for a movie night, Riku slipped a USB drive into her hand.

"Thought you might want this, High Empress of All Editing Valentine," said Riku quietly before resuming speaking in a louder voice. "So, how did the physics test go?"

"Pretty well," said Xion, and she put the grey memory card into her shorts' pocket. Phase One, get Riku's poetry, complete. "I might have gotten a C+ or a B-. Maybe even a B if I'm lucky."

"Xion! Did you study at all?" Olette seemed horrified that a C+ could be considered as a good thing.

"I knew everything about gravity. And I did 3 of the practice problems."

"We were assigned 45 practice problems." Olette quickly did the math. "That's only 1/15th of the work you should have done."

"Don't listen to her," said Axel. "You don't need to know physics unless you're going into science or engineering. I didn't. I slept through space science last semester. Easiest A I've ever gotten in a science class."

Olette looked very put out, and the group laughed.

Pence's house, like all island houses, didn't have a basement, but instead a second living room that Pence had converted into his own entertainment center. The black and white scheme was modern and attractive, but it was the fluffy white couches large enough seated everyone that sealed the deal as the perfect movie night household. Halfway through the first movie, the group switched over to playing through the impressive amount of games Pence owned. Once they had finished with the dancing and Mario games, they moved onto the street fighter games. There was a brief sour moment when Olette decided to read instead of playing, but through use of peer pressure and puppy-dog eyes from Roxas and Xion, she put down the book and proceeded to button-mash her way to victory.

Roxas was the first to leave at around 11, saying that he had stayed up until three the night before cramming for the tests. Axel left with him.

"Someone's got to protect your innocence on the way home, you know?"

They could hear the two friends bickering all the way out the door

Riku left thirty minutes after Roxas.

"My dad's leaving on a business trip early tomorrow morning," he said as he put on his shoes. "Let me know if there's any plans for this week."

With half of their numbers gone, Xion and Olette helped Pence put away the dance mats, soda cans, and pillows that lay haphazardly around the room. When the room was finally clean again, Pence brought out a deck of cards, and the three of them sat down in the middle of the carpet and started a relatively quiet game of go fish.

"My turn," said Xion. "Pence, got any fives?"

"Go fish. Olette, any sevens?"

"Dang it," Olette grumbled, and handed over two cards. "Xion, fives?"

"I knew I should have asked you for the fives." Xion gave Olette her single five. "So you two are super smart, right?"

"Don't underestimate yourself, Xion." Olette glanced over her fan of cards. "You're definitely intelligent; you just need to apply yourself a bit more."

Pence scratched his head. "You seemed good at math to me when we worked on Riku's walking impossibilities."

"Oh no, not like that," said Xion, frantically waving both hands. Pence craned his neck to try to read her cards. "I know all of that, school's boring and I hate doing homework. No, I want to know what you guys know about publishing."

Pence blinked, and Olette gave her a blank look.

"Why publishing?" Pence straightened up and gave her his best serious look. "You've never liked writing before."

It was time to initiate Phase Two – lie like crazy. "I was cleaning out my closet the other day and found a book I wrote about if sports were magical when I was five. It's pretty cute, and I wanted to know what I would have to do if I wanted to published it as a children's book."

To Xion's satisfaction, they seemed to buy it.

"You'd have to get a literacy agent, and make sure that they aren't a fraud," said Olette. "Then the agent will send the book to different publishing companies. If the publishing company accepts it, then you moving on the negotiating a contract and editing the book before it's finally published."

"Or," said Pence. "You can publish it online. Skip all of the work, immediate public access, bam. There are some drawbacks, though."

Olette picked up where Pence left off. "You have to realize, though, that online publishing is easier because you don't get the publicity that printing the book will. You'll be lucky if 10 people read your book online."

"And there's a higher chance people will steal your work," said Pence. "You can get it copyrighted, but people use and steal copyrighted material all the time on the Internet. Heck, I downloaded a movie illegally last night. There's some websites that let you publish online if you join them, too, so you have that option besides publishing it online on your own."

"Wait." Xion was confused. "In order to have copyrights, I would need a publishing company or an online publishing company then, right?"

"Not necessarily," said Olette. "Any original piece of work has its own copyright. Let's say you write a book for a young author's contest. If someone reads your book, and then steals your idea and gets their book published, you can press charges. It doesn't matter that you were signed on with a publishing company. What matters is that they stole what you wrote, and as long as you have proof that you wrote it first, you're fine."

Xion nodded. "Thanks. Not that I'm complaining, but how do you know this stuff anyway?"

"My cousin used to be an intern at Bashwords," said Pence, blushing slightly at the compliment. "It's one of the big online publishing companies."

"I read a book about a girl who publishes her own book when I was younger," said Olette. "The School Story by Andrew Clements. I think I have it at my house if you want to borrow it sometime."

"Sure," said Xion. She checked her phone. "Jeez, it's midnight. I'd better get going."

Olette stood up as well. "Me too. Thanks for having us over, Pence, and sorry we couldn't finish the game."

"No problem!" Pence smiled and put the deck of cards away. "I think I was going to lose anyway."

The two girls made their way out into the cool night air, a pleasant change from the usual heat of the Islands. Despite being in the same friend group as Olette, Xion didn't know her personally very well. Kairi was better friends with Olette than she was, but Xion never saw the brunette around very often. When Xion was finished playing soccer, Olette was studying or working as student vice-president, and altogether had a conflicting schedule when it came to hers and Xion's free times. Somehow, though, Kairi managed to attend all of the practices, be a student representative, spend quality time with Sora, Xion, and Olette, and _still_ finish all of her homework. Xion had no idea how Kairi did it, but the end result was that Kairi and Olette spent more time together than Xion and Olette did.

"So where do you live?"

Olette pointed to the right. "That way, on 2nd Street."

"I'm on 5th Street, I'll walk with you for a bit," said Xion.

They talked as they made their way home through the neighborhoods lit with streetlights. While they didn't have much in common, Olette was a good conversationalist, possessing a quirky sense of humor that Xion hadn't known she had. They parted with promises to hang out more often now that the exams were over and school would start to become easier for the seniors.

* * *

On Saturday, Xion spent the day with Axel and Roxas, eating ice cream and walking around town, generally hanging out and listening to some of Axel's wilder college stories. Apparently there had been a class field trip to the Land of Dragons, where Axel had convinced some of his friends to help him set off every firework he could find.

"Turns out there was a ceremony going on at the same time, and everyone thought that the fireworks were a part of it. We never got caught, and I even smuggle a few fireworks back with me to Radiant Gardens."

"How did you smuggle them back? I heard the airlines are pretty strict about fireworks leaving the country," asked Roxas. Xion was distracted by her rapidly melting ice cream, but leaned in to hear Axel's answer. Security at the Land of Dragons was legendary for being completely obsessed with preventing contraband material from leaving the country.

"Very carefully," Axel leered. "They aren't that big. Use your imagination."

There was a thud as Xion's ice cream hit the ground. Roxas turned a bright red.

"You…what…how is that even…"

Axel laughed. "Relax, we took the train back. Security only checks you there if you look suspicious. You know those incense sticks? I put a bunch of them in my suitcase. That way if there were any security dogs, they'd smell soothing sandalwood and flowers instead of gunpowder. What were you thinking I did? Hmm?"

"You made me drop my ice cream!" said Xion.

* * *

On Sunday, Xion and Olette met up at Destiny's public pool. Living next to the ocean had its benefits, but it was impossible to go swimming in the ocean all of the time. The clean, bleached water of the pool was a nice contrast to the salty ocean. They swam a bit, but mainly sat on their towels and talked, occasionally pausing to reapply sunscreen. At some point, they called Kairi and put her on speakerphone.

"See Olette, I told you that you should get to know Xion better," Kairi's disembodied voice said triumphantly when she realized she was speaking to both girls. "I'm always right about these things."

"Whatever you say, Kairi," said Olette. "How's Twilight Town?"

"Great! Naminé says hi and that she's going to try to visit us this summer."

"Tell her we say hi back and that she should definitely visit, but if not, my family's going over there for vacation for two weeks before school starts." said Olette.

"I'll let her know. If she's not there, you can always meet up with some of her friends here."

"How's Sora?" asked Xion. "Is he getting along with your family?"

Kairi snorted. "You know Sora. My aunt already adores him and he calls her 'Auntie'. He's made friends with one of Naminé's guy friends, this kid named Hayner who was rude to both of us at first. So Sora volunteered to help him clean up their hideout here, and ten minutes later they're fist bumping and joking around like they've known each other for years."

The girls shared a laugh.

"That's our Sora," said Xion. "It sounds like you guys are having fun."

"Yeah, we are. Have you two heard from Riku lately? And by 'you two' I mean Xion," said Kairi.

"I'm meeting up with him tomorrow," said Xion. "We're going to the old secret island to start fixing up the tree house, the shack, anything that needs repairing before summer starts."

The old 'Secret Island' was an island offshore of Destiny Island and part of the archipelago that made up Destiny Islands. The gang had been using the same island as a playground since childhood, hence the somehow childish name of Secret Island. However, because of the rainy season that hit the islands, every year the rotting wood had to be replaced. When they were younger, their parents would do it for them, but that had stopped once they had been old enough to wield a hammer without killing each other. Riku and Xion had made it a tradition to go out and start on the repairs during spring break.

"I think the shack needs a new roof, so don't get hurt. I think Sora's going to call Riku tonight. He hasn't called at all, and I feel bad that he didn't come with us."

"He's not upset with you or anything, don't worry," said Xion.

Xion could almost hear the smile in Kairi's voice. "Yeah, I know, thanks Xion. Okay, I'm sorry to cut this short, but we're going to this struggle tournament, I've got to go. Love you, bye!"

"Bye!" said Olette, and made to turn off the phone before Xion grabbed her wrist and put her mouth right next to the mic.

"Don't forget to exercise! Find a park and run laps."

Her response was the cool dial tone of Kairi hanging up. Xion buried her face in her towel and groaned. "She's going to come back completely out of shape and I'll have to ban her from the tournament."

"I'm sure it won't be that bad." Olette tucked the cell phone back in Xion's purse for her. "Besides, aren't you taking a break from all of the soccer stuff right now too?"

"Sora's taking a break. Roxas's taking a break. Riku's taking a break. And now, Kairi's taking a break. I ran 2 miles this morning."

"Oh," said Olette faintly. "Well." She cleared her throat, and diplomatically changed the subject. "So, you and Riku are pretty close. Have you always been like this?"

"I guess so, we've known each other since second grade. You know, like how Pence and I are friends. Riku and I became good friends around seventh grade, though." Xion put her cell phone into her bag and tipped down the overlarge white sunglasses she wore, making eye contact with Olette. "If you want information on him, ask him yourself. You're not the first person to try to cozy up to me to get some intel on him."

Olette swatted at Xion. "I'm not a fangirl!"

"Oh good," said Xion, relieved. "I was worried about your sanity for a moment there." She pushed her sunglasses up and waved a hand lazily at Olette. "Go on."

The other girl huffed, but continued nevertheless. "How does that work?"

"What do you mean how does that work?"

"Like, for example, Riku dates all of these other girls. You just said that you've had problems with fangirls. Doesn't that…I don't know, bother you? Well, bother you guys at all?" Olette said, correcting herself at the end.

"Not that I can think of," said Xion. "Yeah, we've had problems before, but that happens with everyone. You and – who do you hang out with the most besides Kairi?"

"I study."

"Oh. Right. Well, how about Axel and Roxas? They're best friends, but they've gotten into fights. Heck, half the time they're spending time with each other they're fighting over something, but they always work it out in the end. It's like that."

"Okay," said Olette, but Xion thought she seemed a bit disappointed in her answer, as if it wasn't detailed enough. Then the valedictorian shrugged and smiled. "What time are you and Riku leaving for the island tomorrow morning? I could help in the morning for a bit before I have to babysit my baby cousin."

"We leave at around four forty-five."

Olette shook her head. "That's way too early. Sorry, but I think I'm going to save my sleep for my cousin."

"Waking up early is good for you. It gives you a new start on Earth. Or something that sounds cool like that." Xion nodded as she spoke, convinced in her own wisdom. Olette snorted and began packing up her pool things.

"Thanks, but I think I'll pass."

"Too bad. Nothing makes you appreciate the new day like waking up early."

* * *

"Why are we so crazy to wake up at four freaking thirty in the morning? Why? Why did I agree to this again?"

"You said the same thing last year."

"Riku. Why am I so stupid to do the same thing again? Why didn't you tell me?"

"It was funny then, and it's funny again now. Besides, you drank half of my coffee."

They had woken up early that morning and taken the boat over to the island, Riku rowing while Xion stole sips from his coffee that she was holding for him. The first thing they did was check out all of the problem spots on the island. Kairi was right, the roof to the shack did need replacing, and Xion found out the hard way that the bridge on the east side of the island had a faulty spot in it. She survived the nine-foot drop into the shallows, but was now soaking wet. She stripped down to her board shorts and green tankini swimsuit and Riku hung up her shirt and cargo shorts on the zipline to dry out.

"Why don't I learn from my mistakes?" moaned Xion. She plopped down onto the beach. "Aw, and now I've got sand everywhere."

Riku sat down next to her, wearing his own pair of trunks and a t-shirt. "You can wash it off in the spring later?"

"Yeah," said Xion. They fell into silence after that, watching the grey sky lighten and the beginning of a spectacular sunrise.

"Hey Riku," Xion said a few minutes later as the sky was stained pink, "We're friends, right?"

"Of course."

"Through the bad and good?"

"Yeeessss," Riku said slowly.

"Through the sometimes stupid decisions that we make?"

"Sure." Riku tore his eyes away from the rising sun and raised an eyebrow at her. Ignoring this, Xion pressed on.

"But with forgiveness and happiness and through brilliant plans too? That may or may not end up helping us in the long run?"

"I guess? It sounds like you're trying to marry us by friendship or something."

"I'm making sure we're cool," said Xion. "You know, as friends."

Rike rolled his eyes at her. "We're cool, Xion. Always will be."

"Same here." Phase Three, get Riku's indirect permission, complete. Xion thought she might burst from the cleverness of it all. Instead, she took a deep breath, smiled, and watched the sunrise reflect off the clear, blue ocean.

"Riku?"

"Hm?"

"I'm glad we're friends."

"So am I."

There was a pause.

"Have you ever thought about how weird it is for us to be here?" This time it was Riku who broke the silence.

"Well, no," said Xion, allowing the topic change and recognizing Riku's introspective mood for what it was. "What do you mean?"

"Out of all the other places we could be, we're here, on Destiny Islands. Weird, right?"

"Yes. We are. A lot of people would love to live here. Grass is greener on the other side and all. What about Destiny Islands?"

"Well….We're so small, a part of something more significant and greater than we could ever imagine. Wouldn't it be cool if we could set sail one day and explore the world? Wait. Don't answer that. Stay here, I'll be right back!" He suddenly leapt up and sprinted for the boat, leaving Xion behind. He did return quickly, but instead of running, he was walking, notepad held in from of his face as he wrote.

"Wow. I've thought about it from time to time, but not like that." Xion tapped her chin. "I can see why you're such a good poet, though. Is that another poem?"

"Mhm."

"Can I read it when you're done?"

"Mhm."

"Cool." She stood up and stretched. "I'm going to go get the lumber from the tree house and bring it down to start working. Let me know when you're done."

"Mhm."

* * *

"Hey Riku," said Xion. She wiped the back of her hand against her forehead, but only succeeded in smearing sand and dirt across her sweaty face. She rested back on the her heels, surveying the roof of shack she had been ripping up. After the sun had risen, Xion and Riku, who had finished the first draft of his poem, got to work. They started on the bridge on the east side of the island and had almost finished it before the harsh heat of the sun forced them to switch to working on the east side of the island, which was still partially shady.

Riku crouched three feet to her left, doing his best to hammer in the new boards without falling off the miniature cliff that stood almost even with the roof of the shank. He looked to be in as bad shape as she was - both with damp, sweaty hair and skin, dirt everywhere, and thumbs bruised from occasionally missing with the hammer. The tendency for the two to miss the target of the nailhead was the main reason why they switched who ripped up the boards and who nailed them down.

"Want to switch?"

"Shit," Riku swore as he hit his thumb yet again. "Actually, let's take a quick break." He checked his waterproof watch. "Make that a long break. It's been five hours already. It's going to be too hot to work soon - we should probably go home for a bit and come back after 3'o'clock when it's cooler. "

"Thank god," said Xion, and rose to her feet. She brushed the sand and dirt off onto her shorts, and extended an only slightly grimy hand to help Riku. Riku threw the hammer to the beach below before accepting Xion's hand and pulling himself up. Xion eyed the hammer below with slight distaste.

"I'm not picking that up."

"Never asked you to," said Riku, and lead the way back down the staircase. Once at the beach level, he picked up the hammer and flung it back onto the cliff, where it landed with a solid thump. The clatter of a carefully arranged pile of wooden boards tumbling to the ground soon followed. Xion gave Riku her best smile, eyes slightly crinkling upwards.

"I'm not picking that up," she said sweetly.

Riku grumbled something in reply, but Xion was already at the dock, bouncing in place as she waited for him to trudge his way over and start the motor. Everyone had chipped in some money to buy the standard, off-white dingy equipped with an old, second-hand motor. There were times where it didn't work, but overall the group was pleased with their purchase and to finally put the rowboats they used as children into storage.

By the time they arrived at the harbor, both teens were too hungry and too eager to shower to say anything other than a hasty goodbye. Xion was going to her own house, not having brought spare clothes to change into if she showered at Riku's.

After a rushed lunch and shower, Xion sat at her desk typing on her laptop. She reached the site she was looking for and clicked it open. A slightly boring grey and green screen popped up, and the name of the site was printed across the top of the screen.

"Bashwords," she read aloud. She explored the page, and was immediately attracted to the section reading _Creating an Account – Literacy Agents. _Her mouse hovered over it.

Impatience wasn't what drove Xion to start trying to publish her friend's work behind his back within a week of realizing he was digitalizing his collection. Xion had a plan. She thought quickly, made her plan, and executed it like she would on the field, considering all of the things that may end up going right or wrong along the way. No, it wasn't impatience that drove Xion to click on the sign-up page. It was a part of her plan – her brilliant plan to help her best friend overcome his own insecurities.

And that, in her mind, was worth more than possibly losing her friendship with him.

* * *

_._

_Thanks for reading, and, as always, please consider leaving a review._


	4. Confusion and a Tree Climber

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.**

* * *

Spring break was over, and the monotony of school made the days go by quickly. April was quickly coming to a close, and in a few weeks school let out. Thanks to the intense heat of the Islands and the unwillingness of the school board to install air conditioning, the summer heat forced Destiny Islands to close their schools earlier than the mainland schools. In the meantime, the students coped with overheated schools by breaking the dress code in every way they could. Girls wore more revealing or thinner clothes like camisoles and mini-shorts, and Riku saw Tidus the other day wearing a yellow vest with nothing on underneath. Wakka went through almost all of his classes one Friday without a shirt on before he was finally sent to the office by an irritated teacher.

Riku, despite the wishes of his fan girls, kept his shirt on.

He tapped his pencil against his desk, checking his phone periodically to see if Dana, his latest passing interest, had texted him back. She was a bit of a tease, but other than that, she had nothing in common with Riku other than being hailed as one of the popular kids. Either way, exchanging flirtatious messages with her was far more interesting that being told that the inside of the Earth was a little warmer than the average moron would expect.

Xion wasn't in class today to pass notes and distract Riku from his boredom. She was meeting with the physical education director and the junior she had selected to be the next captain for the girls' soccer team. He tapped out another response to Dana, absently complimenting her hair as his thoughts strayed.

Xion had been acting weird lately, even for her. Ever since their first 'friendship marriage talk' on the Secret Island, Xion had been alternatively avoiding him and seeking out confirmation that they were "still cool". Riku had never dealt with something like this before. Their friendship was easy and not forced, and this reaffirmation made Riku more than a little anxious.

_ If they were truly best friends, would Xion have to ask so many times?_

* * *

Later that night, he was reading quietly in bed when there was suddenly a tap on the window.

"Psst. Riku. Hey Riku, open the window!"

Riku raised an eyebrow. Xion's face was pressed against the glass, creating two-dimensional circles where her normally round cheeks were. He slid a piece of paper in between the pages he was reading as a temporary placeholder and got up, setting the book aside. Xion grinned up at him when the old-fashioned window was unlatched, but made no move to climb from the tree she was in to the bedroom.

"Riku."

"Xion," he said evenly. "Why are you outside of my room, in a tree, at," he checked the digital clock on his desk, "11 at night?"

The girl in the tree pretended to pout. "You're not happy to see me?"

Riku crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Fine. I wanted to be a spy, but I'm pretty bad at it. Your dad saw me and gave me a weird look."

Riku laughed, and sat down next to the windowsill. "I'm going to hear about that tomorrow."

"He still likes me better than Sora," Xion said, kicking her legs idly. "What did you do today? I had to clean my room, including my closet. Mom wants me to move out now that I'm eighteen."

"Not much. Roxas, Sora, and I hung out after school. My dad's been hinting at me getting an apartment in Radiant Garden. I think he wants to make my room into an office. I caught him looking up office desks online a few days ago, and there's no room in the house for the type he wants right now. He's trying to be subtle about it, but was measuring out the size of the corner where my bed is when I got home from school yesterday."

"Your dad kinda scares me," said Xion. "That's funny though. I bet my parents will want to at least keep my bed for guests. Your dad's probably going to get rid of yours. There's no way you can take a bed with you to Radiant Garden."

"Yeah. At least he might help pay for furniture. Have you figured out what college you want to go to yet?" Riku was going directly to college after the summer ended, while Xion would be taking a gap year, visiting relatives in the Land of Dragons and giving herself time to figure out which university she wanted to attend.

"I'm crossing Hearts University off the list. Axel said that Wonderland has a bad reputation of having all of the druggies."

Riku snorted. "Anyone could have told you that. Heck, I told you that."

"What? No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did, and you said, and I quote, 'Shut up, Riku! Their mascot is so cute!' Then you submitted your application to the school for recreational abuse."

Xion sulked, obviously remembering the conversation. "It was a cute cat," she said in defense.

"No. There is no way in hell that _thing_ with the creepiest smile I've had the displeasure of seeing is cute." Riku shuddered in recollection. "It _stared_ at you, no matter what angle you were looking at it."

"Its smile was adorable," said Xion with a sniff.

"Its smile was drawn by an art student on a bad trip."

"You can't draw while tripping."

"And you're an expert on tripping?"

"Why yes, in fact, I'm taking a trip around the world soon."

Riku groaned. "That was bad."

Xion stroked her chin, pretending to think about it. "Maybe," she conceded. "It wasn't too bad. Hey, Riku?"

"I'm giving it a -5 out of 10."

"I wasn't going to ask that."

"Okay then. 'Sup?"

"Riku, we're friends, right?"

Riku tensed, but from her position in the trees and the lower lighting, Xion wasn't able to see Riku well enough to read body language. He didn't reply.

_If they were truly best friends, why was Xion asking for the fifth time that week?_

Was it something he had done? Riku skimmed through the memories of the past few weeks. He had been acting per usual, it was only Xion who was having erratic changes in her behavior. Was there something wrong with Xion? Nothing added up, and asking Xion would get him nowhere if she wasn't in the mood to share.

"Yes, Xion. Please stop asking that," said Riku, forcing himself to remain polite.

"Friends through thick and thin?" asked an oblivious Xion. Riku felt a brief surge of anger.

"Yes," he ground out.

"Promising to never – "

" – give up on each other, despite our mistakes, yes, yes, and yes," said Riku. This time Xion could hear the snap in his voice.

"Jeez, Riku. Okay, the pun sucked. No need to get so worked up about it."

_One…two…three…four…five…six-seven-eight-nine-ten._

Riku counted and exhaled slowly. He was an adult now. He wasn't a 13 year old kid with a temper anymore. Asking in a nice tone would be the best way to get answers from Xion. With that in mind, he calmed himself down enough to say, "Yeah, I'm overtired," and manage a smile. "Why are you asking? Is something wrong?"

Xion shifted in the tree. "Of course nothing's wrong, Riku! That's silly." She gave a light giggle. "I just…wanted to make sure, you know?"

"No," said Riku. "I don't know. Why don't you tell me?"

"No particular reason," said Xion flippantly, and unwrapped herself from the tree limbs she was holding onto. "Well, I'll go now so you can sleep. See you later, goodnight!"

"Night," echoed Riku. Xion shimmied down the tree, and was soon nothing more than a dark blob in the distance, crossing through the neighbors' backyards and hopping over fences.

As soon as she was out of sight, Riku let out a sigh and cradled his head in his hands. He thought he understood girls. Wasn't that why he was such the lady-killer? His eyes flickered downward, staring at his knees from where he sat Indian style. He had tried confronting Xion and gotten nowhere. He flipped open his phone. Perhaps he should get a second opinion.

* * *

Xion vaulted over the low garden wall in her backyard and quietly slipped through the backdoor. Once in the safety of her bedroom, she flopped down onto her bed and gave a short scream of frustration into her pillow, not caring if her parents would hear it or not. There was no way she was going to be able to sleep tonight.

She changed into her pajamas and pulled her laptop onto her lap, opening it up to the email account belonging to Oni Lavent, online publishing literacy agent. Three new messages were bolded at the top, matching the rest of the emails in her inbox – From: Bashwords.

If Riku didn't write poetry, Xion would have never had realized how many people still read poetry. Heck, she liked it. She read every poem Riku would let her. She knew that she wasn't the only one, and that other people liked it as well. But the sheer amount of people who regularly read poetry was more than she expected. Not even two weeks after she first published Riku's poetry, there were over twenty reviews and critiques on his book.

_Journey Through the Dark_, written by R. T. Dawn and agented by Oni Lavent, had sold its fiftieth copy not an hour ago, sending Xion into in alternating fits of happiness and guilt. Riku should be there, celebrating with her at his first landmark selling besides the first copy. This was rightfully his work, his victory, not hers. With each new deposit in her Paypal account, she had second thoughts about keeping it secret for as long as she had. Riku should be the one reading over the critiques, arguing about the usage of this abstract idea in that stanza and why it shouldn't be that word in this line.

She pushed the laptop to the side and buried her head in her pillow. This wasn't the way it was supposed to work. She was supposed to tell Riku right away, let him get over it, and then publish books like no tomorrow. The only problem was telling Riku. When in one of her braver fits of happiness she had trekked over to Riku's to tell him the good news, late hour be damned, she couldn't get the words past her mouth.

_'Hey Riku, I know we're friends and I made you swear we'd be friends forever, but you know that poetry that you entrusted to me? Yeah, that? I published it online and lots of people have read it. In fact, your fiftieth copy just sold. Sorry about that, my bad. Nice weather we're having today - want to go to the beach_?'

She got to the "Hey, Riku," part, but never more than that. She had thought about the consequences of doing this for a while, but…oh man. Xion scowled at her pillow. This was too much. She needed some advice.

The new day arrived far too quickly for Xion's liking, and with it, school. After an atypical light soccer practice for a Friday morning, peppered with dozens of reminders about the upcoming tournament, she pushed past the heavy, wooden front double doors that made up the entrance to Destiny Island Academy. A group of kids half her height pushed past her. Over their heads, she could see her classmates rushing to their first classes, wherever they might be. She wadded her way through the midgets and prepared for another boring day.

She perked up after she finished half-heartedly taking notes in French second hour and was sprinting her way to science. Luckily, from the looks of the notes that Olette had copied for her the other day, they weren't learning anything new, so she could safely spend her time making jokes and passing notes with Riku.

She entered the classroom, and there was Riku calming sitting in his usual seat, tapping away at the phone hidden by the bag on his desk. Xion pulled the desk to his right over a little and sat down.

"What are you doing?"

"Texting," was the brief reply.

"Who?"

"Mariah."

"Mariah…?"

"Rottweiler. She's a cheerleader."

"Ah." Xion tried to match the name to a face, but couldn't remember anything. At that moment the teacher entered the classroom, picking up a piece of chalk and silencing the talkative class as he began the lecture.

Xion took out a blank sheet of paper and scribbled a quick line on it, and checked the teacher to see if the coast was clear. The teacher was too occupied with the diagram of the Earth he was drawing to notice any note-passing. Then she reached out, intending to tap Riku on the arm so he would take the note, but paused.

Riku had stacked up his textbooks in front of him so he could continue texting with his backpack on the floor, and was also copying down notes from the board. He was slightly turned away from her, and although he no longer had the long hair to hide his face, Xion could see the small frown of concentration he wore. The small, one-foot gap that served as an aisle between desks had never been so far apart, and despite the temperature in the school, she suddenly felt cold. Her hand retracted almost by itself, gently placing the unread note back onto her desk.

She spent the rest of the class period aimlessly doodling on the same sheet of paper she almost gave Riku, drawing under the words _Riku, we need to talk._

* * *

"Good afternoon, class!"

Riku sat down on the orange carpet next to Xion in his usual spot, giving her a nod when she shot him an odd look. Riku figured it was for arriving a little after the bell had rung. He had met Zana in the hall, and well, Zana was a sweet little thing.

"I'm so glad our sharing circle has been working," said the teacher. She smiled proudly. "This class's average rose by a full letter grade in the past four weeks. We're going to have one last project on the poetry unit, and then we'll be finished for the school year."

"But we still have three weeks of school left, ya?" said Wakka. The students did their best not to look too hopeful. Ms. Gainsborough smiled.

"For the remaining schooldays, we'll have a study hall."

The class cheered, and Ms. Gainsborough looked pleased at her sudden popularity in her most difficult class. "I know this class is mainly seniors, but for the juniors in here who have to take final exams, use your time in this class wisely. Today we'll be discussing the project. Each of you will write a report on poetry and then present to the class."

Another student spoke up. "Like, the history of poetry, or what poetry is, or what?"

"That's up to you," said Ms. Gainsborough, and took out a stack of papers to be passed around. "It can be about your favorite type poetry, how we use poetry today, about a famous poet, or yes, the history of poetry. In university, they aren't going to pre-approve your topics, so I'm not going either. Therefore, choose wisely. Make sure that you select something that's relevant and interesting to you. We'll be meeting in the computer lab in Room 107."

There was mix of groans and more cheers as students mentally calculated how far they would have to run or walk to the computer lab from their previous class. Next to him, Xion fist pumped the air.

"I've got PE fourth hour, it's literally three doors up the hall," she told Riku.

"Now, if everyone's gotten a rubric, let's go over what I expect to see from your presentations and essay."

* * *

"I love Ms. Gainsborough," said Xion, and polished off the last of her apple. "This is the easiest project ever."

The group was outside for lunch that day, eating in the shade of a grove of palm trees. Growing up on an island made one accustomed to sprawling out in the sandy grass like they were doing now. Riku leaned back on the trunk of one of the trees, eyes closed as he listened to his friends chat idly about school and gossip.

He felt a finger poke him in the arm but refused to move. "Hm?"

"Riku, are you going to help out next weekend?" Riku recognized Kairi's voice.

"For what?"

"He's going to be a guide for some of the teams and students in the morning." That would be Xion. Olette, Roxas, and Xion started another conversation on the tournament. Riku, who had heard enough about it, allowed himself to zone out until another Kairi poked him again.

"I got your text last night. You said you wanted to talk?"

"If you're not too busy today, yeah."

"It's no problem," said Kairi. "I've got my free period after lunch, what about your study hall?"

Riku had a study hall, but rumor had it that there was a sub today. "I'm fine. I'm 18, they can't get me in trouble for skipping study hall. It's not a credited class in the first place."

The bell rang, and Roxas, Xion, and Olette ran back in to the school. Roxas and Xion were racing, but Olette, despite her hurry, found the time to give Kairi and Riku her best disapproving glare.

Kairi laughed, and Riku snickered quietly along with her. "Oh, Olette. She must think we're such delinquents right now." She scooted next to Riku, leaning against the same tree with their shoulders touching. "So, what's been going on with you and Xion?"

"It's that obvious?"

"You've been acting weird around each other. She didn't steal your lunch today, complain about your ego, or talk about soccer with us. She's been flipping between spending all of her time with Olette and I to disappearing at your house for days. Xion might be a little eccentric, but she's reasonable and rational. This isn't like her."

Riku ripped up a few blades of grass, then rested his hand on his knee and closed his eyes again. "She's been my best friend for a long time, you know?"

He could feel her shoulders shrug. "I know, and Sora and I know that more than anyone. We grew up together, remember? Xion was our friend, but it wasn't until we were 12 and 13 that you started spending all of your time together. Before that, it was us three, you, me, and Sora." There was almost a wistful tone to her words. "Don't get me wrong though," she said, hastily correcting herself. "I like Xion, and I'm really glad that you two became so close with her after Sora and I started dating way back in seventh grade. But I haven't seen a lot of you lately, and you didn't decide to go to Twilight with us, and I've been missing the three of us."

"I'm sorry about that," said Riku honestly.

"It's fine. Xion said you wanted Sora and I to have some private time and didn't mean anything by it. I appreciate that, but...tell me next time. Go on about Xion?"

"She told you that? And I don't know. It's been weird. She keeps asking if we're friends, and then going through some sort of 'friendship ritual marriage ceremony' or something like that. She'll hug me and then apologize right afterwards, and has been just…I don' t know how to describe it. Weird is the best word I can think of right now."

Kairi laughed, a slightly strangled sound. "Riku, maybe she likes you."

"What?" Riku sat up and looked around the tree at Kairi, glaring at her amused expression. "You're crazy."

"No, I'm not. It's obvious." Kairi changed tactics when she saw Riku's disbelief. "Look, has she asked you about your flirting habits lately?"

"Skills," corrected Riku. "Flirting skills."

Blue eyes rolled. "Fine. Has she asked you about your flirting skills?"

"No," said Riku quickly. "Well, actually, kinda. She asked who Mariah was."

"Mariah Rottweiler?"

"That's the one. She didn't pass me any notes later that class, and the teacher was watching me the whole time, so I couldn't do much."

"Wait, Mariah was passing you notes?"

"No, Xion didn't talk to me during class through notes."

"See, she was jealous," said Kairi, confident in her deduction. "She's got a crush on you."

Riku swore.

"Hey, no need to say that. I think you and Xion would be cute together."

"Xion's my best friend," Riku said, stressing what those two words meant. "I can't reject her. She'll be hurt because of me."

"Why would you reject her?" asked Kairi. "I meant what I said. Don't you like her?"

"I like her," said Riku, "as a friend. Best friend. Not girlfriend. I would have to reject her, and no matter how many times I've done that in the past, it's not easy, not even to people that are practically strangers."

Kairi sighed. "You know, I was kind of hoping that one day you and Xion would have what Sora and I have, but I guess that's not going to happen anytime soon." She stood up and brushed off the sand clinging to her legs and shorts. "What are you planning on doing?"

He got to his feet as well, but stayed leaning against the tree. "I don't know. Avoid it. Avoid the subject. Avoid her. Anything to make sure that conversation doesn't come up, ever."

"Are you sure?" Kairi looked up at him.

Riku took a deep breath. "Yes," he said firmly. Kairi nodded.

"Okay. Then you have to promise to spend more time with Sora and I."

"I spent time with Sora yesterday," he pointed out. Kairi shook her head, red strands of hair flying in every direction.

"That doesn't count. It was you, Roxas, and Sora, not you, Sora, and I. I mean time with Sora and I alone. You won't be a third-wheel, Riku. We're not little kids anymore. We won't treat you like that again." She held out her hand, and Riku, after a moment's hesitation, shook it.

"Do you think Xion will be alright if we do that?"

"Of course she will," said Kairi. "Roxas has been moping around since Axel left, and she and Olette have been going along so well they have inside jokes that I don't know yet. Roxas, Olette, and Pence can keep Xion occupied until this blows over."

And there was such conviction in her voice that Riku couldn't help but to believe her.


	5. Party Animals and Music

**Summary: It's been a stressful time for both Xion and Riku. Xion tries her best to get some relaxation time, but ends up with the shock of a lifetime. Meanwhile, Riku is about to have a very good day ruined.**

**Warnings: Language**

**IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you follow this story or have read it before and are confused, ****_I did a major rewrite/overhaul of the story. _****You may have to re-read, and I apologize for the inconvenience.**

**AN: We're halfway there, folks! Only about 4, maaayyybbeee 5 more chapters and this is done. Huzzah.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its affiliates.**

* * *

Chapter 5

* * *

_in which Xion is a party animal and Riku faces the music_

* * *

"…I can't figure out how to tell him! Not only that, but he's been super busy with Sora and Kairi lately. Making up for lost time, I guess. Which, you know, is fine by me. I like it when friends are friends, if you understand what I'm trying to say. But I need to talk to him more than they do. I mean, I had the laptop with me, I go to his house, and _bam_, he's out at Secret Island finishing the last of the repairs with the lovebirds. Do I go track down Riku? Is it alright for me to keep on doing what I'm doing? The book is really popular so far, and a bunch of poet lovers have bought it. I snuck his share of the money into his piggy bank earlier when he left his window open – I think his dad saw me again, though, he must think I'm a creeper – so I'm not doing everything wrong, I hope. Am I doing the right thing?"

Xion shook her hands together, clasped together as if in prayer. After a moment, she opened them back up.

_Reply hazy_, blinked the white letters of the magic eight ball. _Try again._

"Damn," sighed Xion. "I have got to get a better moral compass." She put the toy in the small back pack she carried with her around the island in place of a purse, and fisted some of the sand absently, watching the small grains trickle out of her clenched fingers.

Riku and Xion didn't spend all of their time together. They had days where they didn't see each other, but this was different. There was always that knowledge that Riku would have time for Xion at the end of a long week, and Xion for Riku. But Riku had become increasingly absent since spring break ended, citing work to be done on the Secret Island, and refused her offers of help. Xion was initially upset, considering that the work on the Secret Island was supposed to be hers and Riku's project, but in a show of maturity, accepted his decision to be with his old childhood besties. Not to mention, it also gave her the excuse of not having to talk to him, something that weighed on her guilty conscience more than she'd like to admit.

Xion distracted herself by spending more quality bonding time with Olette, and while they got along, they didn't click well enough to warrant hanging out every day after school together. Olette was also involved in some preliminary science project with Pence at the moment, and both were extremely busy. They offered for Xion to join their team, but Xion was never a fan of long-term work that involved staying still and lengthy formulas.

She checked her phone and got to her feet, shrugging on her back pack. She and Roxas were going to have a pity day together over stupid best friends at noon.

She arrived on time, but spent a few minutes waiting patiently on the porch. She raised her hand to knock again, and had just made contact with the wood before a feminine voice called out.

"I've got it!" The door opened all of the way, and Xion didn't have much of a warning besides a squeal of delight before she was tackled in a hug and red filled her vision. She spit out a loose strand of hair and gingerly returned the hug, doing her best not to trip backwards and fall down the stairs a less than two feet behind her.

"Ack, hair! Nice to see you too, Kairi. I thought you and the boys went to Secret Island today?"

Kairi released her and began pulling back her hair into a loose bun. "Riku went, but Sora and I decided to have a lazy day, and I wanted to do watch something online with Roxas later. Besides, there's only a few small things left to do on the island, and you don't need three people for that."

"Oh," said Xion, not sure what to make of the new information. She followed Kairi into the twin's pristine and bright house, saying a quick hello to their father working on his laptop in the study. "So are you ready for Destiny Island Academy's first Grand Soccer Tournament tomorrow?"

Kairi threw a smile over her shoulder. "Of course. Naminé texted me last night saying that her school is paying for a part of the hotel expenses for students going to support the girls' soccer teams, but she's going to cheer for us as well. It's a little weird to think about how many schools are coming here just to watch us girls kick around a ball."

"Kairi, we live on Destiny Islands. The tournament's popular because every mainlander wants to visit the Islands."

"True. Still, nine other schools is a lot. At least the hotels are helping us pay for the refreshments, since they're getting all of that business. Hey, Roxas, look who I found."

Roxas was in the kitchen, leaning over his laptop and wearing a white apron. He paused in the middle of his typing in order to spin around and toss an idential apron at Xion.

"A proper pity party calls for pity party food," he said, skipping the usual greetings in favor of getting down to business. "Cookies or cake?"

"Pity party? I didn't know this was a pity party. Got boy troubles?" Kairi arched an eyebrow at Xion, who returned the knowing expression with a confused look of her own.

"Cake, I guess," Xion said, answering the easier question and pretending like she didn't hear Kairi.

"Cake, cake, make a cake!" Sora bounced into the kitchen and gave his girlfriend a quick peck, finishing by wrapping his arms around her and resting his head on Kairi's shoulder. "Chocolate, with whipped cream and filling."

Roxas snorted. "Get out of the kitchen, or you won't get any cake."

"So you _are_ making cake then. Alrighty, then, let's go, Kairi. I cleaned my room some more while you were outside."

"Oh, Sora, I'm so proud of you…" Kairi's voice floated through the house as the two made their escape up to Sora's room.

Roxas made a soft noise of disgust. "He's going to be telling me all about how he got 'rewarded' later, I know it."

"Can't you just walk away?"

"You don't understand." Roxas shook his head. "It's going to be the middle of the night, when I'm dead asleep, and he's going to jump on my bed and not leave me alone until I listen to him go on about how amazing Kairi is."

"Aww, that's kind of sweet," said Xion. "Do you have cake mix?"

"Nope, we're doing this from scratch. And good for them, but I don't give a crap about Sora's love life at 2 in the morning, no matter how 'sweet' it is."

Xion scrolled over the recipe that Roxas had found, absently calculating how they would split up the work. "No chocolate filling, then? Poor Sora's going to be disappointed."

"Don't care," was the flippant response. Xion giggled.

They worked in relative silence after that, listening to music that Roxas was streaming from his laptop before Xion started up another conversation.

"Since this is a pity party day, how's Axel doing?"

"Stupid." Roxas snapped off the two chocolate-covered mixers off of the electric mixer, handing one to Xion and sticking the other one in his mouth. "Hashn´t talk´t ta me fer a weevk. An´you?"

"Avoiding me. According to him, he's just busy getting the Secret Island ready for the graduation party on Saturday, but that's bull according to Kairi."

Roxas frowned. "I thought you were the one avoiding him?"

"Yes. No. Well, maybe. I don't know. Yes?" Xion tried to express her frustration by taking a bite of chocolate, but clamped down on the steel underneath the sweet cake mix instead. "Ouch."

Roxas laughed, and the mood lightened. "So you were avoiding him, and now he's avoiding you, but you weren't really avoiding him when you were avoiding him so now you're upset. God, girls are complicated. At least I know it's Axel being a bastard, as usual."

"Hey!" Xion protested. "I wasn't really avoiding him. I had something to say to him, and then I couldn't do it. It made things a little awkward."

"Huh," said Roxas. He finished off the last of the chocolate and checked the timer for how much longer the cake had to be in the oven. "Then say it and get it over with."

"It might make things worse."

"Okay."

"Okay? " Xion was forcibly reminded why she talked about these things with Kairi and not Roxas. "You know, you're pretty bad at this."

"Xion, I am baking you a cake."

"I helped bake that cake."

"A goddamn _cake_."

"Right, thanks for the cake, Roxas, even if it's not done yet."

"I'm baking you a cake, and then we can eat the cake and watch The Dark Knight." Roxas leaned against the granite counter, and met Xion's eyes. "I'm awesome at this."

Xion thought it over. Cake and a movie sounded a lot better than thinking about telling Riku about the poetry business. And she could safely say 'business' since it was earning her money, after all. Well, Riku was earning money. Not that he knew that. And –

"Cake and Batman, Xion."

Xion blinked, and returned the small smile Roxas was giving her. "Cake and Batman."

"Oh! Almost forgot. After Batman, the Gullwings are doing a live online performance of some of the songs on their album. So it's cake, Batman, and the Gullwings."

"Kairi's going to join us for the last part then?"

"Psh, no. They'll both be down here for the cake."

It was true. Not a minute after the cake was cooled and covered in frosting, Kairi and Sora appeared at the threshold of the kitchen, giving pleading looks to the two chefs. Roxas rolled his eyes and deftly cut two more slices. About 10 minutes into the movie, Kairi and Sora quietly tiptoed out of the living room before clamoring up the stairs and stomping into Sora's room above them.

"Well, that was subtle," said Roxas. Xion snorted and coughed on her cake.

When she wasn't in any more danger of choking, she sank into the overstuffed couch and felt some of the ever-present tension leave her. Personally, she thought as she and Roxas laughed and joked their way through Batman Begins, this pity party was one of the best parties she'd ever had.

Sora and Kairi returned while Roxas was switching out the DVD for The Dark Knight, Kairi with Sora's laptop under one arm and Sora holding its charger. Roxas abruptly dropped the disc he was putting away and scrambled over to the coffee table where Kairi was setting up the computer.

"Is it time?"

Kairi shook her head. "Not for another hour, but they're doing a live commentary beforehand."

"Are you talking about the Gullwings?" Xion leaned over and watched Kairi navigate YouTube to the live stream. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Sora picking up the abused DVD Roxas had forgotten about, dimming the lights, and starting the movie.

"Yep." Roxas got to his feet and sat down on the couch next to Xion, leaving the other sofa for Sora and Kairi to share with the laptop in front of them. "The live commentary is going to be pretty boring, and Kairi and I already know everything there is to know about the band. She'll be watching it on mute, and pause the movie when the Gullwings finally start." He nodded at his twin, and Sora tossed the remote to Kairi. "That way we can watch the movie in peace."

Roxas, however, turned out to be a hypocrite. Despite his claims of boring commentary, every five minutes or so he would twist around and ask Kairi what was going on, kicking Xion in the process. Kairi was no better. By the time Bruce Wayne made his appearance she was wearing earphones and listening to the running stream of Gullwings talk. Twenty minutes into the movie, Sora switched places with Roxas, which seemed to solve most of the problems. Xion was able to easily block out Kairi and Roxas's whispers now that she wasn't being kicked in the side, and was therefore completely engrossed in the movie when it came to a sudden halt, freezing the Joker's face into a cruel smile.

"Hey!"

She leaned around Sora and gave the two fans her best glare, but they were both too excited to pay any attention to her justified anger.

"It's on! It's on, it's on! Look, it's starting!"

Sora flipped on the lights and perched next to Kairi, sneaking an arm around her as he did. Xion gave a mournful look at the TV, but moved over to sit on the floor near the coffee table so all four teens were huddled around the laptop. Kairi had put the viewing screen in full size, enlarging the full, white-floored stage, the beaming white lights against a navy background, an orchestra pit right below the stage, and a controlled applause. Xion squinted, trying to get a better look at the people sitting in the dark audience.

"I thought this was an online performance….?"

"It's taking place for VIP fans, personnel, and sponsors in Traverse Town since that's a major commercial spot," said Roxas. "This way they won't be interrupted by the fans. But the viewing counter of the live stream is almost 27 million people, which is about a third of the entire population of Disney."

"Wow." Xion had always known that the Gullwings were extremely popular, but hearing the statistics was a bit shocking.

Kairi shushed them impatiently. "It's starting," she hissed, repeating her words from earlier.

A guitar strum echoed through the living room, and a series of lights began flashing different colors around the stage, illuminating three figures standing in the center that Xion could swear hadn't been there before.

_"What can I do for you?"_

The camera zoomed in on the singer, and as she repeated the opening lines of the song, Xion recognized Yuna Braska with her trademark mis-matched eyes. Paine and Rikku, backup singers and bassist and guitarist respectively, stood slightly behind her, completing the trio. An unknown drummer accompanied them as the three girls launched into the song.

_"Far beyond the hazy borders of my heart,_

_I could see a place that's something like this…"_

Xion closed her eyes, unable to watch the camera flip between the stars so quickly while trying to give each one adequate screen time. She listened to the lyrics instead, recognizing an almost familiar quality to them.

_"…All I know is that I must believe,_

_Cause the truth I'm seeking_

_Always was inside of me…."_

They were very familiar. Xion frowned. She could almost replace them with one of her favorite poems by Riku, written for a broken arm after a fall off of a swing set. How did it go again? _Believe, not once briefly, not forever with doubt, in yourself, where you will always find truth you're seeking…_

Xion sat up straighter, almost knocking her head with Roxas's as he hunched over the computer. It could always be a coincidence. She crossed her fingers.

"Coincidence, coincidence, coincidence, please be a coincidence," Xion chanted softly.

Kairi reached over and swatted Xion on the head. "Shhh!"

_"And though I know the world of real emotion has surrounded me,_

_I won't give into it._

_Now I know that forward is the only way my heart can go,_

_I hear your voice calling out to me:_

You'll never be alone…"

Xion thought back to a month earlier, sitting in Riku's room and reading one of his revised poems he had gifted her for the very first time.

_Her imagination ran wild and left her behind, she´s trapped in a world of real emotion._

_No safety, no comfort, as she steps forward, the only direction her heart will go._

The song began to wrap up, and the supposedly conservative audience erupted into cheers. Xion flinched as Roxas and Kairi let loose their own cheers as well. Sora clapped along, and shrugged at Xion's blank stare.

"Even I'm going to have that song stuck in my head for the rest of the day."

Back on screen, the three Gullwings took a bow, and a male announcer began to talk as the famous singers exited the stage.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, we'll be returning in five minutes just in time for the Gullwings to perform some of their old songs, but first, we'll be discussing the Gullwings' exciting new album. We've seen a sneak peak what we can expect from the song they just preformed for millions of online viewers, "Real Emotion", a new hit song by the Gullwings."

_No_, thought Xion, unmoving as Kairi and Roxas chatted excitedly and Sora went to get more cake, _Real Emotion. A new hit poem by Riku Jenova._

"Xion! Xion, we have to leave in like, ten minutes. Xion?"

"Wha-? Kairi?"

Xion covered her eyes against a sudden, harsh brightness, and struggled to sit up. Kairi stood in the threshold of her bedroom door, one hand on the light switch and wearing a blue and tan uniform with Destiny Academy's logo on the front.

"You were supposed to meet up with me at the café at 6:45. It's 7:20, Xion."

"Seven twe - _what_!" Suddenly Xion was fully awake, swearing fluently as she flew around the room. She quickly changed into her own soccer uniform and tugged on her shin guards. "Why didn't my alarm go off?" She pulled up her socks and picked up her phone from her desk, flipping it open only to be met with a screen informing her that her battery was dead. "Oh. That's why. Dad's up, then?" Xion asked as she sped to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

"Yeah, he let me in. He put a couple of bagels in a paper bag for us to eat later. You look terrible, by the way."

Xion spat out the last of the toothpaste and splashed her face with cold water. She looked into the mirror, ignoring in the dark circles under her eyes, and met Kairi's steady gaze as she stood in the doorway. "I didn't sleep well last night. Sorry Kai, we'll have breakfast together some other time since today didn't work out."

Kairi nodded once and smiled. "Pay for my food when we do get the chance to go, and you're forgiven. Also, we need to leave. Like, now."

They didn't arrive early as would be expected of the hosting school, but their coach, a history teacher who was more than happy to let Xion run the team, had played the role of hostess perfectly. Xion and Kairi left their coach to direct the different teams and coaches around the expanse, admittedly sand-infested fields that were behind the academy.

"Personally," said Kairi as they made their way over to the left-most field where their first game would take place, "I think we have a good chance at winning this."

Xion shook her head. "I don't know. Twilight and the Dragons have incredible records at the moment. Hey, didn't you say Naminé's here?"

"Mhm. She's sleeping in right now, but Sora's going to walk her over."

"Not Roxas?"

"He's helping out with the music, remember?"

"Oh yeah."

Oh no. If Gullwings-obsessed Roxas was going to be helping out with the music...Xion's stomach twisted and lurched threateningly. Kairi's perfectly manicured hand waved in front of her, and Xion absently recognized that the two girls had arrived and were surrounded by their teammates. "You all right, Xion? You look kinda stressed out."

"Blergh!"

Everyone present turned to look at a young freshman, who was bent over a small, tell-tale puddle in the grass. Xion groaned, but pushed aside her own ill feelings to take charge.

"Jane! Help your friend over to the nurse's office. Everyone else, huddle up!"

Xion took a deep breath, steadying herself. This was it - the tournament that would be the highlight of her soccer career. She had to focus. She surveyed the expectant faces around her. She had responsibilities, and right now, that was to lead her team to victory.

"Ladies, we've had a good season – one of the best so far – and we've beaten or tied with a majority of the teams here. Don't be intimidated by the sheer number of people here. The matches will stop during the hottest part of the day, but that doesn't mean it's not going to be hot. Stay hydrated, and keep stretching. 5 laps to warm up, you know the drill. Go!"

* * *

Riku Jenova didn't feel sick, ill to his stomach, tired, or nervous that morning. No, Riku woke up that day feeling refreshed. His father made bacon. His favorite yellow shirt was out of the wash and ready to wear. He walked to the school and arrived perfectly on time at 8:15. He was given a set of easy-to-follow instructions for guiding around the visiting students and teams.

He met said teams. In the process of welcoming them, Riku discovered that his phone could only hold 30 more contacts.

Two hours later, his phone could not hold any more contacts.

_Yes_, thought Riku as he waved goodbye to the twins Melina and Melody, _today is a very good day._

He was in the cafeteria of the school, after leading the students to the best place for refreshments and where there would be some electric fans set up to try to combat the heat. The amount of people in the room was steadily increasing, a sign that the matches had come to a close or were almost done. He used his height to his advantage, and easily spotted Sora's unique hairstyle a few yards away standing near a head of almost-white blonde.

"I've never thought of memories that way," Sora was saying as he slid up next to him. "Hey, Riku. This is Naminé, Kairi's cousin. She's going to be a neuroscientist and find the cure to amnesia."

"Wow," said Riku. Up close, Naminé bore a striking resemblance to her cousin, so much that Riku felt a minor sense of disorientation. "That sounds amazing. Should I get your autograph now?" He threw in a wink for good measure.

Naminé's face turned a dark shade of red and she shook her head silently.

Sora laughed. "Don't mind Riku, he's our resident charmer. I'll introduce you to Roxas later, he's getting the music set up right now. Roxas is harmless, unlike Riku here."

"Easy, Sora. I'm harmless, I don't bite," said Riku, and Naminé started to give him a hesitant smile until he finished with, "well, unless you want me to."

Huh. Riku never knew people could turn that shade of red or squeak that high.

"Knock it off, Riku." Kairi pushed her way through the crowd to her cousin's side, Xion in tow. Sora greeted his girlfriend with a kiss, apparently not caring that she was drenched in sweat, while Xion introduced herself to Naminé and gave Riku a cheerful but tired hello.

"I take it you won?" Riku asked when Kairi and Sora broke apart.

"Yep," said Xion, grinning from ear to ear. "We were against the Radiant Garden kids, and they were dying from the heat by the middle of the second half. We ended up scoring three goals in the last thirty minutes."

"Xion's making them sound worse than they are," said Kairi. "They scored three goals in the first half while we barely managed to score one, so it was a 4-3 game in the end. There was so much _running_."

"You two look tired. Are you going to be okay?"

If anyone besides Riku was surprised at Naminé's ability to talk, they didn't show it. Either way, Riku looked closer at the girls. Naminé was right. Both looked tired, but Xion could be a poster-child for exhaustion.

Kairi waved off her cousin's concern. "We're fine. We have this refreshment break slash lunch for the kids that aren't from here, but we can go home and nap until this evening when we play Agrabah and Twilight Town. Oh, hey, there's the music! Come on, let's go introduce you to Roxas."

"You three go on ahead," said Xion. "Riku's going to walk me home."

"Oh?" Kairi raised an eyebrow, but before Riku could interrupt and say he would take Naminé to meet Roxas, Xion was grabbing him by arm and gently tugging him away.

"Yep," she called over her shoulder. "I'll charge my phone, text me later."

"I didn't know I was going to walk you home," said Riku, trying to recover. Xion let go of his arm unexpectedly and faced him, leaning up against a row of lockers in the hallway behind the cafeteria.

"I wanted to talk to you privately."

Alarm bells went off in Riku's head. "Um, Xion, we don't have to do this…"

"Yes, we do," Xion said, and with that, the last of Riku's good mood vanished. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and copied Xion's position, leaning against the lockers opposite of her.

"Look, Xion, I'm sorry, but we shouldn't do this."

"Wait, what would you be sorry about?"

Riku thought it was obvious. Well, better to get it over with as quickly as possible. He gathered up his courage and prepared to crush his friend's romantic hopes and dreams. "Xion, I can't return your feelings. I'm sorry."

Xion stared. "Wait. You thought I had the hots for you?"

Riku shrugged lightly, masking his own discomfort with the situation. "I'm hard to resist, I know."

Strands of music floated down the deserted hallway, filling the silence before Xion doubled over laughing , to Riku's utter bewilderment.

"Riku, you're wonderful," she said, dashing tears from her eyes. "No, I do not have the hots for you. Who the hell gave you that idea?"

"Kairi," Riku answered, slightly sullen.

"That explains a lot. She's good at moral advice, but terrible about romance. Okay, I'm calm now."

"She said you might be interested in me when I told her about how you've been acting odd lately." Riku crossed his arms. "Want to explain what was happening with you?"

"Well," said Xion, hesitating. Riku tapped a foot impatientally. "I think it started with you, and then went all the way to the music. But it mainly started with you, and your poetry."

"My poetry?" His frustration was dropped in favor of confusion. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Xion began pacing. "It's good, Riku. It's damn good poetry, and you were never going to show anybody. You were going to keep it hidden away, and share it with maybe four or five other people besides me in your lifetime all because you think it's too girly."

The frustration and anger rose up again. "Yeah? It's my choice, Xion," he said. "We've been over this before. _Forget it._"

"No! I wasn't going to just _leave _it and let the world _forget_ that it once had this great poet that no one would ever know or learn from or study in class or make stupid key chains with quotes from. I couldn't _forget it_ and let your work be forgotten before it had a chance to be known. We've been doing the poetry unit for the past month, and you know, your poems are better than some of the ones we read. It wasn't fair that I was the only one to get to read your words."

"Thanks, Xion." Riku thought it was sweet she had wasn't going to…oh no. Past tense. Xion was using past tense. "Xion. What did you do." It wasn't a question, it was a demand for information, information that Xion quickly gave.

"I published your poetry online under an anonymous name."

"You published my poetry."

"Yep."

"Online."

"Yep."

"But not under my name."

"Yep."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"I think the world's a little tipsy. I'm going to sit down now." Riku sat down hard.

"If it makes you feel better," said Xion, sliding down onto the floor next to him, "it's sold 97 copies so far, at about three dollars a copy. You're also getting good reviews when people leave comments or rate the book."

"Okay." Riku thought about it. 97 times 3 was a lot of money. Not bad. And it wasn't under his name, and that was similar to him occasionally bringing his poetry to lunch and saying it was someone else's. Altogether, it was okay. "Okay."

"It's okay?"

"Yeah, you know what, yes. It is, because nobody's going to find out, though I'm still mad you went behind my back to do that."

"I can live with that," said Xion.

"Good." Riku rested his head on his palm, turning sideways towards Xion. The song in the background changed to some new pop tune, reminding Riku of something Xion had said earlier. "How does my anonymous poetry have to do with music?"

Xion winced. "It…might not be anonymous poetry for long."

Riku's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Well, out of those 97 people, someone plagiarized, big time."

"That's fine," said Riku. One person wasn't going to make much of a difference. "What's wrong with that?"

"Riku, shut up and listen to the damn music."

Riku, still in a slight state of shock, shut up and listened to the music.

_"And though I know the world of real emotion has surrounded me," _the words drifted past, and as he listened, a vague suspicion began to form in the back of his mind. They sat together, shoulders almost touching, and when it was over, Xion nudged him.

"_Her imagination ran wild and left her behind, she´s trapped in a world of real emotion. _Those are your words, Riku. Not theirs."

"Theirs?" Riku echoed.

"The Gullwings. They stole your poetry for lyrics. It can't be a coincidence. Sorry about that."

"You think they stole my poetry for lyrics."

"Yes."

"The most popular band in Disney right now."

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Silence reigned through the hallway once more.

"Well, fuck."


End file.
